Information handling systems generally use a display device for presenting data to a user. Applications running within the information handling system may provide video and text to a display controller for displaying images associated with the applications on a screen of the display device. Under particular operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows operating systems and Apple Macintosh operating systems, different applications are provided in different windows. Each window may display data or a graphical user interface (GUI) of an associated application. The user may size and move the window to desired portions of the screen of the display device for viewing data associated with the application. The user may even select to open a window associated with an application to fill the viewable area of the display.
While different windows provide access to multiple applications, problems occur when dealing with multiple windows on the same screen. Many users require multiple applications to be running simultaneously. Software programmers may need various windows for displaying program code associated with different programs, as well as displaying code for debugging on some windows and executing code on other windows. Web designers rely on different windows for displaying different pages being designed. To gain access to a particular application currently running, the user must select among the available windows. When many applications are running concurrently, the screen of the display device may appear cluttered. It may become difficult for a user to select a desired window of a particular application. The user must resize, minimize, or move some of the open windows to access or view a desired window. Some applications also spawn new windows, such as windows for performing document searches or spell checks. The spawned windows may “pop-up” and appear over particular portions of the screen the user may need to see. Some users need more visible screen space to have windows associated with different applications visible. For example, financial managers need to view application windows for a variety of financial data such as market movement, news feeds, and stock analysis. Financial managers need to be able to switch between application windows providing portions of the financial data quickly, without having to deal with the nuances of moving windows and switching between windows.
One solution to the problem of limited visible screen space is to use a display device with a larger screen. Using a display device with a larger screen provides a limited solution. The display screen is still limited and may still not be large enough for users needing to switch between concurrently running applications. An alternate solution is to use multiple display devices. Some operating systems provide support for spanning the system's viewable desktop over the screens of multiple display devices. Windows associated with different application programs may be assigned to different connected display devices. Users may view a window associated with one application on a screen of a first display device and a window associated with another application on a screen of another display device. A user may simply move a mouse cursor past the edge of one screen to access a window on another screen. Windows may also be expanded to span screens from multiple display devices, allowing the window to be stretched to a larger size than offered by a screen from a single display device.
While windows may be spanned across screens from multiple display devices to get a larger effective screen size, using multiple display devices may become expensive and unfeasible for some systems. Purchasing multiple display devices for each single system may become expensive when providing multiple display support for a number of different systems. Each connected display device also takes up physical desk space. Supporting a large number of connected display devices becomes limited to by the amount of physical space a person has to place the connected displays. Furthermore, hardware support must be provided for each connected display device. A cathode ray tube (CRT) controller is provided to send video for display on the screen of a display device. Each CRT controller is generally provided through a different video card with a video port for connecting to a display device. Multiple display devices are also not feasible for use through a portable computer, such as a laptop. Internal space for hardware within a laptop is very limited due to the amount of space needed for critical system components, such as hard disk space, batteries, and memory. Space for providing hardware support to connect to more than one external display device is generally not available, although some laptops allow for a connection to a single external display device. While the laptop desktop may be expanded across to the screen of the external display device and a screen of a display device integrated to the laptop, forcing a laptop to be connected to an external display device limits the portability of the laptop.
Some hardware programs condense video intended for multiple display devices onto a single display device; however, these hardware programs are designed to work with sets of hardware components dedicated to each display of the multiple display devices to be supported. For example, the hardware generally includes separate frame buffers or CRT controllers for each display of the multiple display devices to be supported. Furthermore, video intended for each of the multiple displays is provided in small portions of the screen in the single display device. For example, to support four different display devices, the screen of the single display device is quartered, providing only a fourth of the screen for each supported display device. As more displays are supported, the individual screen portions become so small as to make it difficult to identify objects or read text. From the above discussion, it is apparent that an improved method of providing an expanded desktop space would be useful.